When something big happens in the world, the YouTube community responds. Our news partners race to get footage live on the site. On-the-spot reporters upload video directly from their smartphones to let us all know what it’s like to be there. Leaders express their outrage, and their sorrow. And our 800 million users around the world head to YouTube to better understand what just happened, from multiple perspectives. For years, YouTube has been the global living room - today’s it’s becoming a global newsroom.2012 was a year in which one of the most respected voices in reporting, The Associated Press, hit one billion views on YouTube - a milestone only reached by a few dozen channels in YouTube history, and shared this year by one of the newest voices in reporting, Phil De Franco. It was a year in which one of the world's most exciting stories on Earth came in the form of a four frames-per- second video from Mars.

It was a year in which The Weather Channel live-streamed its coverage of Hurricane Sandy for more than 70 hours, to millions of people who would have struggled to get the news any other way.And it was a year in which people from more than 200 countries tuned in to youtube.com/politics to watch the US Presidential Elections.We’re proud of our news partners, and the work they do to bring the events of the world to their growing audiences around the world. Here’s our recap of 2012, which we put together with the help of Nieman Journalism Lab and Storyful. As we head into the new year, subscribe to the new youtube.com/news channel to stay on top of the biggest news stories of 2013.

Two down, two to go. We’re not sure about you, but last week’s energetic Vice Presidential debate left us wanting more. Luckily, you’ll have your second chance to watch Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama face off in the second Presidential debate tonight at 9:00 pm ET at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Tune in to the YouTube Elections Hub to watch the whole debate live from the comfort of your own chair.

But if you’re tired of watching the debates all by your lonesome, well, no longer. You can create your very own virtual debate “watch parties” tonight inside a Google+ Hangout. All you have to do is click on this link, which will open up a Hangout window. Then, you can invite some friends, name your debate watch party (if you like), and enter the Hangout. The ABC News debate live stream will already be loaded inside the Hangout.

You’ll each have to make your own popcorn, but it’s worth it to see your friends’ real-time reactions and exchange color commentary while the candidates go head-to-head.Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Frontline |The Choice 2012".

Some of the biggest news stories of recent times have played out on YouTube—we’ve been transfixed by citizen-uploaded footage coming out of the Middle East, gained unique perspectives on natural disasters thanks to on-the-spot reporting and security cameras, and seen citizens document elections via video to ensure fair process. This growing volume of news-related video has contributed to the now 72 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute.

In this age of abundant content and short attention spans, thoughtful analysis and rigorous reporting is more important than ever before. That’s why we’re so pleased that investigative reporting now has a new home on YouTube—The I Files. Curated by the Center for Investigative Reporting with funding from the Knight Foundation, The I Files will be a hub and community for investigative journalism on the web, showcasing reporting that digs deep into stories, gives background to complex issues, and reveals details that help us make better sense of our world.

As citizens continue to play a critical role in supplying news and human rights footage from around the world, YouTube is committed to creating even better tools to help them. According to the international human rights organization WITNESS’ Cameras Everywhere report, “No video-sharing site or hardware manufacturer currently offers users the option to blur faces or protect identity.”

YouTube is excited to be among the first.

Today we're launching face blurring - a new tool that allows you to obscure faces within videos with the click of a button.

Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your 8-year-old’s basketball game without broadcasting the children’s faces to the world, our face blurring technology is a first step towards providing visual anonymity for video on YouTube.

Blurring faces on YouTube is simple. Once you’ve chosen the video that you’d like to edit within our Video Enhancements tool, go to Additional Features and click the “Apply” button below Blur All Faces. Before you publish, you will see a preview of what your video will look like with faces blurred. When you save the changes to your video, a new copy is created with the blurred faces. You will then be given the option to delete the original video.

This is emerging technology, which means it sometimes has difficulty detecting faces depending on the angle, lighting, obstructions and video quality. It’s possible that certain faces or frames will not be blurred. If you are not satisfied with the accuracy of the blurring as you see it in the preview, you may wish to keep your video private.

Visual anonymity in video allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not.

YouTube is proud to be a destination where people worldwide come to share their stories, including activists. Along with efforts like the Human Rights Channel and Citizentube that curate these voices, we hope that the new technologies we’re rolling out will facilitate the sharing of even more stories on our platform.

Everyday on the CitizenTube channel (and @CitizenTube on Twitter), along with our curation partners @storyful, we look at how the top news stories are covered on YouTube. Each week we post a weekly recap of the top news stories of the week, as seen through the lens of both citizen-reported footage and professional news coverage.

Everyday on the CitizenTube channel (and @CitizenTube on Twitter), along with our curation partners @storyful, we look at how the top news stories are covered on YouTube. Each week we post a weekly recap of the top news stories of the week, as seen through the lens of both citizen-reported footage and professional news coverage.

We viewed appalling scenes in the air over America as a JetBlue flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the pilot was restrained for "erratic behavior".

We witnessed devastating wildfires in Colorado force the evacuation of hundreds of residents, with at least one death reported.

We observed a sense of 'petrol panic' as motorists in the UK and beyond were worried by rising oil prices and a potential fuel shortage because of strikes.

We followed the GOP candidates as the presidential race took yet another turn, with Rick Santorum winning his 11th state of the campaign in Louisiana.

We marked a successful run-off presidential election in Senegal, won by Macky Sall amid many economic challenges in the country.

We saw no let up in the controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, as Trayvon's frustrated parents took their plea for justice to a Congressional forum on neighborhood watch groups and racial profiling.

Until recently, Burma has been more or less closed to the outside world, making it difficult to find news and information about what was happening inside the country. We’re pleased that people around the world will be able follow what’s happening as Burmese voters head to the polls on election day.

Everyday on the CitizenTube channel (and @CitizenTube on Twitter), along with our curation partners @storyful, we look at how the top news stories are covered on YouTube. Each week we post a weekly recap of the top news stories of the week, as seen through the lens of both citizen-reported footage and professional news coverage.

Everyday on the CitizenTube channel (and @CitizenTube on Twitter), along with our curation partners @storyful, we look at how the top news stories are covered on YouTube. Each week we post a weekly recap of the top news stories of the week, as seen through the lens of both citizen-reported footage and professional news coverage.

We saw record flooding in New South Wales and Northern Victoria force the evacuation of thousands from their homes in the region.

We observed a high-ranking defection in the Syrian government, as deputy Oil Minister Abdo Hussameldin quit his post saying he could not go on "serving the crimes of this regime."

We followed the GOP candidates during one of the high points of the US campaign trail: Super Tuesday. Of the ten states on offer, Mitt Romney took six, Rick Santorum took three and Newt Gingrich took one.

The election season heats up today as voters in ten states -- with a total of 419 delegates at stake -- head to the polls to cast a ballot in the GOP primary.

We’ve been following the race closely on YouTube, featuring this cycle’s trending videos, political advertisements and campaign highlights on youtube.com/politics. Tonight, you can watch live coverage from the Wall Street Journal, whose top editors and reporters will be providing commentary and analysis as the results come in.

Tune in to youtube.com/wsj starting at 7pm ET to follow the evening’s returns.

And if you’re in one of the ten states holding a primary or caucus today, we’d love to see your videos! For those on the campaign trail documenting the political process at work, you can upload your videos to YouTube using a new mobile app created by the team at Storyful. Available for both Android and iOS, Storyful Direct is an easy way to share your videos with Storyful, who will be choosing a selection to be featured on YouTube and google.com/elections.

Even if you don’t live in a state that’s holding a primary tomorrow, Storyful Direct can be used to document your experience during the run-up to the Presidential election in November.